Obviously, for someone in my situation, attending school is quite difficult. To be honest with you, I did not want anybody to know that I was sleeping on the streets, because it was no one else’s business but mine and it was for me to deal with. However, the two main things that stopped me doing that were trust and relationships. I had no trust in anybody and no relationships with any teachers because they were so mean to me because I had behavioural problems. I was at school for a reason; I was there to get educated and not to be spoken to as if I was one of their friends.
I think that it is really difficult for young people who are living in supported accommodation and hostels to get into any sort of training or education, unless they do it themselves. I tried for several years to get into college to do a higher national certificate in social care, because that is what I wanted to do. However, because I had been living in supported accommodation, it came down to money. Everything on this planet is about money, but it should not be about money. It should be about giving every kid, whether they are from a care background or living with their parents, the opportunity of some sort of education and training, but that does not happen.
I do not understand why Scotland would stop young people from getting an education, because that is what is going to make people—getting training and getting into employment. I struggled—don’t get me wrong.
Just on the back of this, I will raise what I was trying earlier to get in to ask a question on. I have had to give up my tenancy, which I fought for for years and years. I have had to give that up because of the debt that I got into. I did not know how to pay rent or pay for gas and electricity, because I had never done it in supported accommodation. Nobody showed me how to do that. I was forced into the flat and I did not know that there were two or three options that I could have had under section 5.
When I moved into my tenancy I had support workers for six weeks, but I asked for extra time with them so that I could learn how to do things. I knew how to budget, but I did not know how to pay my rent or do shopping—all the basic stuff. I did not have that. They stuck with me for only six weeks. I asked for the reason behind that, because there is always a reason for something in life. The reason was that the funding that they had to support me was stopped because I had been with them for three and a half years.
They told me that my tenancy was the only option that I had, but it turned out that it was not the only option. I could have waited until I got a house that I could call home. I do not see where I live right now as my home, because it is not mine and I am not in control of it.
I cannot stress more how strongly I feel about children and young people getting into education and training. Nothing should stop them from doing that. We really need to think about that, because we are going to have kids who will just go down the wrong path in life because no one wants to help them into training and education.
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